6533b855fe1ef96bd12b0681

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Mass Segregation in the Open Cluster NGC 2422

subject

description

UBVRI photometry of the open cluster NGC2422 (age ~10 8  yr) down to a limiting magnitude V ≃ 19 is used to study the cluster spatial distribution and the luminosity and mass functions. From the Color-Magnitude Diagram (CMD), we obtained a list of candidate cluster members based on a photometric criterion. Using a comparison field region and an iterative procedure, a correction for contaminating field stars has been inferred in order to obtain the luminosity and the mass functions in the M=0.4 -3.5 M ⊙ range. By analyzing the spatial distribution, we infer that a non-negligible number of cluster stars lie outside our investigated region. We estimate a correction to the mass function of the cluster in order to take into account the complete stellar population. The Present Day Mass Function of NGC2422 can be represented by a power-law of index α = 3.07 ± 0.08 (rms) in the mass range 0.9 ≤ M / M ⊙ ≤ 2.5. The index α and the total mass of the cluster are very similar to those of the Pleiades.